There is nothing that makes the striking of midnight between December 31 and January 1 significantly different than the other three hundred sixty-four midnights of the year. It is only the fact that a couple thousand years ago a guy in a toga decided that it was as good a place as any to end one year and begin another. It's arbitrary (just ask one of the billion or so people who will celebrate the Chinese New Year on February 7).

If nothing else, you have to admire the courage of a writer who can look at one of the acknowledged masterworks of perhaps the greatest single body of work in the western canon--Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, King Lear--and ask herself, "What if I...?" If that same writer takes it a step farther and answers the question for herself on paper for all the world to see, well, you just have tip your hat, hoist your glass, give a few hearty "huzzahs" and keep your fingers crossed that she isn't hoisted with her own petard (to borrow a phrase from Big Bill).

That's what Book Hunters in Brief is doing this week: saluting some serious literary chutzpah with these Shakespearean spin-offs.

Think about it: Gilgamesh; Sir Gawain; Huck and Jim; Sal and Dean; Luath, Bodger and Tao. Road trips have been the makings of stories since the first caveperson gathered some friends around the fire and said, "Wait till you hear this." Why? Because a journey is shaped like a story. By definition, every journey, like every story, has a beginning, middle and end. Likewise, every journey and every story have some sort of conflict--whether that be weathering the elements to reach the top of Mt. Everest or just a long layover in Albuquerque. Bingo! You've got yourself a story, and as readers and travelers alike know: getting there is way more than half the fun.

Sooo, it’s pretty much Halloween, and I was thinking that instead of doing my usual three posts/month reviews, I’d just make one mega-post this month with a large variety of books to discuss for your pleasure. But in, like, a more abridged than usual sort of way. Because this Insidious 3 movie ain’t gonna watch itself.

I will admit that when those SPCA PSAs come on my television, my hand instinctively shoots for the remote; I cannot change the channel fast enough. I'm guessing I'm not the only one. I'm also guessing I'm not the only one who feels ashamed for turning my back on the suffering of those animals. I think a small part of that impulse to avert my eyes has to do with the sheer scope of the problem. I can't save them all. I feel powerless. The organizers of Adopt a Shelter Dog Month understand that. They're not asking us to save them all--just one.

TheTeen Read Week theme this year is "Get Away @ Your Library" which speaks to both the idea that the public library can be the best kind of refuge from the stuff all of us, but especially young adults, have to deal on a daily basis. It also gets at the idea that reading, almost by definition, opens up the world to the reader--reading can be a road map for your life.

There's a feeling that all readers know when they the last words on the last page of a good book. Actually, I don't think it's a feeling; it is many feelings all swirling together: exhilaration, satisfaction, contentment, pride, but also hunger for the next book and a twinge of doubt that they'll ever find another that will give such pleasure.

Minnow Bly has learned some hard lessons in the short seventeen years that make up her life. She’s learned that parts of you that you take for granted can be taken away, your family can betray you in the blink of an eye, and she’s learned that the power of belief can be the most dangerous thing of all.